Let’s talk about UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING video releases

Remember when we saw those early reviews saying that UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING was confusing and made no sense? Most of us thought they were wrong about the movie, but it turns out they accurately predicted the video release. The obvious straightforward thing to do would be to release the original uncut version of the movie and a 3D blu-ray for those who are equipped. But I guess in tribute to the movie’s unorthodox approach they decided to go with a release that’s more… elliptical.

DAY OF RECKONING received an NC-17 rating and had to be trimmed. The uncut version played at festivals, but those of us who saw it on-demand saw a version with some of the violence trimmed to get an R-rating. This cut version is now the only one available on disc in Region 1/A. If you want the uncut version here I’ve been told it’s available as a digital download.
I don’t play that. I considered getting a German import that I read about, but decided on the region A blu-ray on the strength of the extras. It has a feature length making-of documentary (divided into 3 featurettes of about 30 minutes each – you know how they do it) and a commentary track with John Hyams and Dolph Lundgren, but only the R-rated cut of the movie.

The extras are indeed great. The documentary was made independently by fans from what I understand, and was clearly not by some studio advertising department. There are no shots of the actors sitting in front of a movie poster giving canned answers to dumb questions. It’s on set footage, lots of direct cinema of the filming taking place, interspersed with Hyams in hotel rooms and different places between shooting, talking about his progress and problems he’s facing at the time (such as when they find out before one of the big fight scenes that Scott Adkins has been hiding a serious knee injury).

Although there’s footage from throughout the shoot it really zeroes in to focus on the making of particular scenes, including the Adkins vs. Van Damme fight and the car flipping outside of the sporting goods store. I really like the detail they go into about filming a stunt like that. I wish they had more on the fight that takes place inside, but so goes life.

My favorite part of the documentary is a section focusing on Andrei Arlovski. They all love how much he gets into it. In one of the scenes where he’s chopping shit up with an ax he was apparently swinging a real ax in front of the real actors. Because of his high threshold of pain from MMA he sometimes has them hit him for real, because otherwise he doesn’t know how to do reactions. Adkins talks about how alot of guys in fight scenes are nervous about really hitting the leading man and causing trouble, but Arlovski “doesn’t give a shit.”

After they paint a portrait of a real lunatic they have a great montage of him throughout the shoot doing weigh-in style face downs with various actors, towering over them and looking them straight in the eye with pure hatred. The best one is with the old lady from the plumber scene, who says she’s not scared of him. There are also shots of him talking to his pitbull. He seems like a lovable guy.

One thing I noticed in the documentary: they shot an effect of Arlovski getting the top of his head knocked clear off when Adkins hits him with the baseball bat at the end of that sporting goods store fight. That is clearly the exclamation point that belongs at the end of that scene. Now all the sudden I feel more frustrated that I don’t have the uncut version of the movie.

The Hyams/Lundgren commentary track is also fun. The biggest theme is the contrast between Hyams’ rebellious instincts and Lundgren’s more commercial ones, and how they tried to find a balance. At the beginning they talk about an earlier script that Lundgren didn’t like, which was apparently even weirder and had a protagonist with no dialogue. Toward the end Hyams asks Dolph if they made another one whether he’d like to continue in this weird direction or go back to the more normal style of the original. Dolph feels that they can combine a DAY OF RECKONING approach with a plot about saving the president’s daughter or something, to please everybody. It’s kind of comical as they go back and forth about it.

In the middle they kind of get off the movie and into talking about movies they like and their philosophies about how to make movies, which makes it kind of more like an interview than a commentary track, but it’s a good interview.

What I’d like to do is compile a list here of the best releases of DAY OF RECKONING for those still looking. Is there a version that has the uncut film AND the extras? Is there at least an uncut version that will work in region A players? How ’bout 3D?

Please report in the comments if you think the one you got is a good version. Include the region code and a link if possible. I’ll update this post with new information.

UPDATE: So far the best prospects for uncut in the U.S. appear to be the German Uncut 3D Blu-Ray (apparently region free) and the Canadian combo-pack be Eone (reportedly uncut, although not marked as such). I’m not sure how to order through German Amazon due to the language barrier, and some have reported not being able to ship to an American address from Amazon Canada. Please let us know if you have any success yourself.

VERN has been reviewing movies since 1999 and is the author of the books SEAGALOGY: A STUDY OF THE ASS-KICKING FILMS OF STEVEN SEAGAL, YIPPEE KI-YAY MOVIEGOER!: WRITINGS ON BRUCE WILLIS, BADASS CINEMA AND OTHER IMPORTANT TOPICS and NIKETOWN: A NOVEL. His horror-action novel WORM ON A HOOK will arrive later this year.

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66 Responses to “Let’s talk about UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING video releases”

Vern, there doesn’t appear to be a version with the uncut film and all the extras at the moment.

No sign of an uncut region A release, either.

Interestingly, a couple of DVD review sites have noted that there appears to be gaps in the Hyams/Dolph commentary, which suggests that they may have indeed done the commentary on the uncut version and it’s been slightly trimmed for the cuts for the R-rated version.

So maybe we will get an uncut version with commentary somewhere down the line?

I have yet to see the film in 3D, so I would love to find a 3D Blu-ray of the Uncut version in region A. It sounds like this is not possible right now, which is too bad. I may have to resort to downloading something. I’m definitely not buying another Blu-ray player just for this.

The DVD (EAN: 4260041335448) and Blu-Ray (EAN: 4260041335455) with the big, fat, red 18 on the cover are CUT. As far as I know it’s not just the R-Rated version, but even one that has been cut down even more, to meet German standards. Also the only extra is the trailer.

The DVD that says “uncut” where the red 18 would be (EAN: 4260041334779), is the completely NC-17 version. It has a so-called “Spio/JK” rating, which is higher than 18.

The 3D Blu-ray that says “uncut” (EAN: 4260041335431) is also the NC-17 version, but in 3D. Bonus features on the uncut versions (both DVD and 3D Blu-ray) are the trailer, interviews with Hyams, van Damme, Lundgren and Atkins and a picture gallery.

All infos are taken from the usually reliable website cinefacts.de and the DVD PROFILER database. Infos about the degree of censorship, are taken from the also very reliable schnittberichte.com(which is the German original version of movie-censorship.com)

So, how do I get my hands on one of these uncut DVDs? All eBay seems to have is the German Bluray (I don’t have a Bluray player, much less an all-regions one), and my attempt to pick up the Canadian Bluray/DVD combo pack from Canadian Amazon was met with some crap about it being “unavailable” even though it says right on the page that it’s in stock.

Elliptical approach indeed. All I know is, for now I have access to a friend’s R-rated copy of DAY OF RECKONING; I’ll listen to the commentary when I get a chance, but it’s not important to me to own a copy with commentary on it. One listen is enough.

When I get a chance, or when it comes to exist, I’ll get a hold of the 3D unrated American version. Or whatever 3D unrated version I can play. Or my close personal friend John Hyams will invite me over sometime for a screening, no big deal, I’ll bring my own glasses.

That still shot of Pitbull’s dome getting Mickey Mantled looks horrific, so I’ll be glad to someday be shocked anew when I see that in full motion in the unrated version; it’ll be like watching a new movie.

Ok, so the digital download here in Sweden seem to be the unrated version. It runs 154 minutes apparently.Which seems highly improbable since from what I understand the differences in running time seem to be just around 30 seconds. The dvd and bluray over here runs 114 minutes and contain jackshit in terms of extras.

FYI the making of documentary was not made by “fans” per say but one of the co-writers on the film, Doug Magnuson who produced it with Hyams.

As for Blu-ray there’s no ultimate edition unfortunately, the U.S. Region A is the worth the disc price for the making of and commentary, and for the uncut and 3D versions, you have the choice between German Uncut 3D (feat. 2D) All Region, Australian Uncut 3D (Region 3D) and upcoming UK Uncut 3D limited Steelbook (Region B, only from Amazon.co.uk, avail Feb 11th)

Amazing Larry, that’s exactly the spot where I tried to buy the combo pack. The order went through, but it was only after it went through that they told me it was “unavailable.” The delivery estimate on the order is “We’ll notify you via e-mail when we have an estimated delivery date for this item.” I haven’t canceled the order or anything, but I’m going to go ahead and assume they have no intention of sending it to me.

Eddie— You might want to consider instead buying one of the three used copies listed on that same Amazon.ca link (the first one, from Video Eclair, is probably your best bet). Then once it’s confirmed, cancel your previous order. I’m guessing that course of action would be less of a hassle.

Larry– Tried a couple of them. Kept getting the same message: “We’re sorry. This item can’t be shipped to your selected destination. You may either change the shipping address or delete the item from your order by changing its quantity to 0 and clicking the update button below.”

I’ve pre-ordered the UK 3D BD, and I’ll check to see if the disc is region free when I get it. I have a BD player (I use it to watch imports from the US) I can switch to region ‘A’, so I’m pretty sure that if I do that, and the UK disc still loads, it will mean that the UK steelbooooook 3D release is region free….? If it is, then all you good folks can import it and watch it uncut, in three dimensions, on your puny American Home Entertainment Systems.

As this sight’s resident Blu-ophobe, I’m waiting for someone to chime in on the merits of the various DVD releases. I can probably just watch the special features on the R-rated American release on Netflix, since I’m not likely to rewatch them, while buying the uncut version, but I want eyes-on verification from someone I trust (you motherfuckers) before I make an actual purchase. I have a region-free player so geography is not a problem.

This is one of those movies that grows on you the more you think about it. At first I thought it was an enjoyable, if ultimately less satisfying, follow up to Regeneration. But the more I thought about the movie, the more radical it seemed. It’s pretty much a European art film that also happens to be a sequel to a Van Damme franchise. And neither side of that equation is sacrificed. You get plenty of kick ass action scenes and lots of trippy visuals. It also seems to set up more sequels. It really opens up the possibilities of this franchise.

Okay guys…. I meant to post this stuff to the film review comments but here seems more appropriate now.

I have both the Canadian Blu-Ray by “Eone” and Sony’s Blu. I ended up with both of them through Amazon.ca. The Canadian one is uncut. It’s only extra features are the previously mentioned interviews that are very ‘epk’ in style. Though, it does include the only real interview footage with JCVD. He states in the interviews that he wanted to work with Hyams because he saw Hyam’s documentary “The Smashing Machine” and liked it a lot. I thought that was pretty interesting. Anyway, the disc also comes with a DVD/Digital Copy of the uncut film ( looking at you Mr. Majestyk).

The way to tell it apart from the Sony release by the cover (besides the bilingual text) is the big blue banner across the top advertising the DVD/Digital Copy. Also, since I’m talking about the cover I feel like I should mention that Fred Topel’s great pull quote is feature on the back on this release but is only credited to “Crave Online”. The disc art is the same as the cover and not really as cool as the disc are on the Sony release. The cover is also not doubled-sided like the Sony release.

What I did was combine the two releases into a single multi-disc case with the Sony cover art. It seemed liked the best option for the most thorough version (though the 3d option is still missing in region A sadly).

I noticed that someone mentioned that the Eone Canadian disc is sold currently at Amazon.ca. I have to imagine that it’ll be restocked shortly. There was probably a run on it once people realized it was the only uncut region A option.

Matt: Hmm. Maybe the Canadian Blu-ray/DVD combo pack is the way to go, in case someday I get over my racism against hi-def. Like if a family of Blu-rays moves into my neighborhood, and even though I continue calling them by racist slurs like “Blu-gay” and “Ray-pists” (because that’s just my way), I will forge a begrudging respect for their culture and even martyr myself to save them from a gang of bootleg Blu-rays gone bad.

Matt – I believe you, but I want to know how you confirmed that it’s uncut. Does it have the top of the head flying off? I notice the running time is listed as 114, which is also what it says on my American blu-ray.

Eddie Lummox – I’m in America. Nashville, Tn to be exact and they sent it to me with no trouble. Is the order placed with Amazon LLC (.ca) or an Amazon independent seller? A lot of times the Amazon Indy sellers won’t ship internationally. My orders were filled by Amazon LLC.

Vern – There is obvious extra gore when John’s wife is murdered. I mean it’s A LOT more. Also there is extra nudity and a shot of the dead porn shop owner after Magnus plugs her along with more violence bits in the hallway assault. Speaking of Arlovski. You definitely see his head smashed open by Adkins. It’s a long shot and very cool (completely different from the implied hit of the R-rated cut). Also in Dolph’s death scene you get a much better look at the ‘Machete through the jaw” gag. The change in the editing of both those deaths scenes go a long way to making the film more brutal. Everything is there Vern, I promise (honest injun).

Both my copies had the exact same run time of 114 minutes listed on the actual covers, so that’s not a good indicator (it’s frustrating I know). The big blue banner across the top advertising the DVD/Digital Copy and the French bilingual cover are better indicators. They are exclusive to the NC-17 version. Plus, its distributor is “Eone” not Sony.

Don’t click on the buy new/used options. Just click “Add to Cart” enter your regular Amazon.com account info and you’re all set

If you are unable to get a copy, Vern. I’d totally be willing to mail you the DVD/Digital copy as I don’t have much need for it and it’s the least I could do to thank you for all the hours of entertainment your writing has provided me with while I slave away at my “Office Space”-esque desk job.

Okay, nevermind, there’s one guy on amazon who’s willing to ship to the States, Moref Designs. I mean, there two guys with used copies that are currently available to ship to the US, but they’re both bluray-only, no DVD.

Vern, I get why you’re not down with downloading. But this is one instance where I feel no guilt for making an exception. The American distributor CHOSE not to make the uncut version available. I have no problem whatsoever going around them when they make a dick move like that. I mean, if they were distributing it but I went and got it free instead, that’s more like stealing. That’s downloading purely to save a few bucks. But when they make it impossible (or extremely difficult: amazon.de? seriously?), they have essentially removed themselves from the movie’s supply/demand/purchase equation. By choice. So I choose download over disappointment.

If you’re talking about just downloading it for free, I can’t support that. The distributor doesn’t give a fuck, but Hyams and other filmmakers trying to make great fucking movies out of the Universal Soldier franchise, and those of us who want to watch them, suffer if their movies don’t make money. One example of this is the UNDISPUTED series. Scott Adkins seems to think (judging by comments on twitter and what not) that the reason they’ve had such a hard time getting a part 4 going is that too many of the people who loved part 3 just pirated it. That is a real world consequence. We want Boyka!

Anyway, it’s not like it’s impossible to import the uncut version and support the overseas distributors who did it correctly.

I admit that I watched the first UNDISPUTED sequel through a stream at a friends house. As soon as a I could though I went out and bought it and I also purchased part 3 the day that it dropped on DVD. Unfortunately piracy is pretty much the unavoidable demon.

It’s a shame that it hinders the output of potentially awesome music and movies and other forms of media sometimes but we lived in a spoiled world. People no longer believe in giving artists their fair share without a free trial first. Because one thing I will say is that I’m the only person that I know that actually still buys CDs and just rips them onto his iTunes when he wants new tunes.

However mostly everybody else I know gets music illegally. Yet these same cats at least have some common courtesy and go to the concerts of many of the artists who’s music they steal. Something about them liking to give them the money more directly while they tour. Which is true the artists make way more money on tour than they would off record sold. But I still like the artist to receive the 5 cents worth of royalty points they’d receive from my purchase. I rather make them 5 cents richer than keep them 5 cents poorer.

Well, the UNDISPUTED movies are not easily available, so what are you gonna do if you want to see them? It´s up to the distributor or whoever owns the rights to make them available. It´s hard to support movies if you cannot buy them.

The argument is that you have no divine right to watch a particular movie, or whatever.

However, I call bullshit on this. The Internet means that we now have the physical and technical capabilities to distribute media as much as we damn well please. That applies to the record and movie businesses just as much as the pirates. If the “legitimate” – and I use that term VERY loosely, given some of their business practices – companies don’t do this, other people will. These are the same corrupt morons who tried to ban the VCR because it would “destroy” the media industries and nobody would ever make content ever again (yes, this is what some of their claims amounted to. I’m not the one exaggerating.)

Video games, music, movies… I’m in a constant moral quandry with them. Because I often love the product, but I hate the business practices associated with it. And no, I don’t pirate, although I do use a lot of free services like Youtube and I’m not sure how an artist gets paid through that. Do they benefit from the advertising at all? I think the ideal scenario – and I know I completely disagree with Vern here, but this is my opinion – is some kind of tiered subscription service where you can watch what you want, where you want, by logging in using a computer or an internet-ready TV or whatever. So you can watch a single movie, or five a month, or fifteen a month, or whatever. Services like that do exist, but the licensing is so restrictive that they normally only have five hundred or a thousand films that you can actually watch. That kind of bullshit needs to stop.

What these companies can’t do is keep taking a product that you can reproduce and distribute at negligible cost (yeah, you need an internet connection and a computer, big deal) to millions of people, but sell single copies of it (with advertising, DRM, unskippable anti-piracy messages and the works) at £9.99 a pop on a fragile metal disc that won’t let you copy the data from it, and then claim that all you own is the physical media and a “licence to play” what’s on it. This is only a viable business practice as long as corrupt lawmakers keep passing legislation aimed at benefiting up the big media distributors’ business practices (at the cost of everybody else, including the smaller media distributors). In short, it was only a legitimate business model before the days of digital reproduction and distribution. Now it’s a gigantic con.

Having now received, and checked the UK BD discs, I can confirm that they are locked to region B. Bad news for those of you in the US wanting to get this in 3D. Either you need a region free player, or you need to wait and hope that someone in region A territory (Japan?) puts this out.

Well Shoot, I don’t know how it is in your country, but in the U.S. you can easily order the UNDISPUTED movies if you can’t find them in a store, and I’m sure it’s probly on Netflix or whatever too. I know it’s different if it’s not released in your country, but even in that case I look for imports. In fact I bought another Florentine/Adkins joint, NINJA, from a different region since it didn’t come out in the U.S. until later. I’m not trying to lecture anybody, but I believe in supporting the type of movies we like so they can actually make more movies that we like.

Paul, I always use the example of the railroads when discussing the relevance of major corporations that control the manufacturing and distribution of media in the digital age. There was a point in time in the US where the people who controlled the railroads were like kings because if you needed fuel, supplies or in some cases food you had to rely on the railroad to get it to you. However, overtime we developed fuel pipelines, planes and a highway system that made trains less necessary. The same thing has happened with how we get our media. In the days before the internet we used to rely on music/film studios to deliver media to our local retailer/theater or TV. With the rise of the internet and media becoming more easily accessed and shared the need for theses major corporations to be involved in how we get and consume our media has been greatly diminished, but the companies themselves are desperately trying to cling to a dying business model.

Charles, that’s a good analogy. It made me laugh that those ATLAS SHRUGGED movies were set in the present day yet centered around a breakthrough innovation in the exciting, cutting edge field of… uh… the railroad construction industry. Gee, if only there was some other analogous industry that has revolutionised the way we transport things. Oh well.

Vern: “I believe in supporting the type of movies we like so they can actually make more movies that we like.”

Now I don’t think anybody here would disagree with the sentiment you espouse. BUT if the media distribution companies themselves use that argument (and they do), I think I’d like to get a straight answer to the question: how much of the money I paid for “Unisol: Regeneration” actually went to the company that produced “Unisol: Day of Reckoning”? And I suspect that answer would be pretty hard to obtain. I agree with the sentiment but I hate the argument, because it’s bullshit that aims to give the impression that the only way artists don’t starve is by selling DVDs. That’s not true. It never has been.

So I recently started checking out instantwatcher.com, which is kind of like a companion site to Netflix Instant – it’s a lot cleaner to view and easier to see what movies are new/upcoming on instant, and which ones are about to leave (since Netflix appears to only give you a few days heads up before something disappears)

Anyways, I find out that Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is on Instant now and is the #3 most popular movie. I wonder how many people will have their minds blown and how many will simply turn the movie off in confusion.

Sorry if I misinterpreted you, but it seemed like you were saying (esp. in your earlier post) that you have the right to watch whatever you want, given technology etc. The problem with that argument is that it quickly becomes a slippery slope. “You’re charging $10, sorry, I’m only willing to pay $5. Off to bittorrent I go!” You don’t have to pay what they are charging, but the sacrifice is that you don’t get to watch the movie. When you pirate it (not you specifically) you’re just giving those SOPA assholes more ammunition next time they want to kill the internet. Anyway, I agree that distributors are a bunch of gangsters and some sort of all-you-can-watch tiered subscription service is pretty much inevitable. And don’t get me started on copyright law. Lifetime plus 70 years… what a joke.

And the point I was making, when I disagreed with the statement “you have no divine right to watch a particular movie”, isn’t that if a movie isn’t available in your country or whatever, you should run to bittorrent. The point I’m making is that now we have the internet, there’s no excuse whatsoever not to release a movie in a particular country, just like there’s no pro-consumer reason for region coding.

The reasons that we still have region locks, etc, are all licensing bullshit that are made out to be some gigantic problem but in reality could be sorted out very easily indeed if the businessmen involved were at all interested in doing so. They’re not, because they are con artists who have the support of the lawmakers. They have all the legitimacy of that racist guy who got acquitted of murder when he randomly killed some unarmed black guy on the street because he said he “felt threatened”. They don’t want to distribute movies, they want to keep the same cartel in place that’s kept them in hookers and cocaine for the last fifty years. They have zero vision or morality. They are scum.